Archive for the 'Brad Stevens' Tag Under 'UCLA' Category

Like many other teams before them, it appears that UCLA has struck out on trying to lure Butler coach Brad Stevens away from Indianapolis.

According to multiple reports, it seems Stevens will turn down an opportunity to replace Ben Howland, despite the best efforts of UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero, who had made Stevens the Bruins' top target for their next coach.

Stevens seemed to suggest that he was feeling a bit sentimental about Butler on Friday morning, taking to his little-used Twitter with a potentially telling message.

"Love walking through Hinkle in the morning," Stevens tweeted. "Anxious to get started on our spring workouts next week."

Without Stevens in the fold, UCLA's coaching search is presumed to be completely wide open at this point, as the other top target, VCU's Shaka Smart, took a pay raise and extension to stay in Richmond earlier this week.

To start, let me be frank: There's not much concrete info out there about a potential Brad Stevens-to-UCLA situation. There is, however, plenty of speculation.

Sometimes, in situations such as this in the social media era, the latter can be confused for the former, and that kind of conjecture can spread like wildfire and start mass hysteria. So try to keep calm.

There is very good reason to believe that Butler coach Brad Stevens is UCLA's top target for its coaching search. There's also good reason to believe that UCLA has contacted the Butler coach at some point or another.

In the last day or so, word of a certain private plane that took off from LAX and traveled to Indianapolis International Airport on March 25 has been rumored to have been carrying UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero (or at least some member of the athletic department). This plane most definitely exists, but there's little concrete proof that it had anyone from UCLA in it. The plane is registered to a jet systems company in Ontario, CA, and it's pretty unlikely we'll ever know for sure who was inside. Still, I won't deny that when I saw the plane's path, to Indianapolis and back to LAX with in the course of a day, its existence intrigued me. The timing also seems to match up fairly well. But again, there's not much that can be proven, and the plane has been stationed in Ontario since it landed back at LAX on Tuesday.

I do know, for a fact, that Brad Stevens was at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis this morning. That would seem to go against initial reports from local TV stations KCAL and KTLA that Stevens was in Los Angeles yesterday, but it's certainly not impossible that Stevens could get a red eye back to Indianapolis and be there for work in the morning. I've heard it from a few people that he was there the morning before, as well, but I can't be 100 percent sure on that.

As of Wednesday afternoon, it appears that highly-sought-after Butler coach Brad Stevens is the number one choice of UCLA's athletic department for its open head coach spot.

That fact, in itself, is no surprise. Stevens is one of -- if not the -- best mid-major coaches out there. Marquette coach Buzz Williams, who beat Stevens in last weeks Round of 32, called him a "Hall of Fame coach," and Stevens is just 36 years old. By almost all accounts, he's the closest thing college basketball has to a prodigy coach.

Stevens has gotten the full court press before from other schools and remained in Indianapolis, but UCLA certainly would be the best program that Stevens has been approached by. He would certainly "excite the fan base" -- a quality that AD Dan Guerrero said he was looking for in UCLA's next coach. Still, at this point, there is no word that UCLA has made an offer to Stevens.

But would Stevens, who is a Midwesterner through and through, fit in Hollywood? Is he the right choice to recruit Los Angeles and return UCLA to the elite? And would he even accept an offer, if one was made?

First, let's take a look at whether things would make sense on UCLA's end.

Now that Ben Howland has officially been dismissed as UCLA's coach, there should be a host of candidates that crop up in the coming weeks. And with UCLA's basketball program looking to usher in a new era, the athletic department will certainly be under a ton of pressure to get it right.

Howland's firing unfolded slow enough that there's no reason to expect the job search will be any different. But as we're in the speculation stage now, here are a few of the likely options that UCLA might check in on for its open position:

Shaka Smart, VCU. Smart has long been a hot commodity for teams desperately in need of a big splash on the coaching market, but so far, he's shut down both NC State's and Illinois' offers to move on from Richmond. He's certainly not afraid to stay there, where his "Havoc" defense has become a name brand, and he's a local hero. But UCLA may just be big enough to lure him out west. In a past New York Times story, Smart called UCLA one of the best coaching jobs in America. So if he won't come to Westwood, where would he go? The biggest concern for UCLA may be whether his demanding defensive style -- his defenses don't mess around -- might not jive with what top recruits want to showcase on their way to the NBA. Still, I expect Smart to be one of the first calls that UCLA makes to gauge interest.

Brad Stevens, Butler. The other half of college basketball's two most desirable coaching candidates, Stevens is undoubtedly one of the game's smartest coaches. And like Smart, he also mentioned in that NY Times story that UCLA is one of the best jobs around. Stevens is a Midwest guy and has also been mentioned for pretty much every job opening for the past five seasons, only to stay in Indianapolis. But hey, things worked with a coach from Indiana before, didn't they? (Trust me, you'll hear that plenty more this week). You could also question whether Stevens could get the big-time recruits, but I think it's less of an issue with him than Smart. Still, would Stevens really leave? After all, Butler is moving to the Big East next season. Like Smart, he's almost certain to hear from UCLA at some point.